The American Spectator

Reader Mail

Silly Villains

11.17.04 @ 12:01AM

A MILITARY PERSPECTIVE
Re: Paul Beston's Villains and Valor:

Right on, Mr. Beston, since retiring in '73 I've been billeted, more or less, among those "silly villains." And may the good G-d excuse me, there's no accounting for their tastes.

To me, our national elections, Iraq and Fallujah have been and are the news, but for the last several months, I, along with all other viewers and readers of TV and news publications, have been bombarded with an unending stream of "did or didn't Peterson do it," crappy comments by news readers, reporters and self or media termed "experts." And now that that trial is near an end, they are all set to give us another Californian circus with wha'cha'ma'call'it (the name is immaterial, but Black, I think it is) being accused of killing his wife two and a half years ago.

You are right, Sir, "silly villains" is far too kind.
-- James O. Dirden
CSM, U.S. Army

I was so gratified to read the article by Paul Beston. He amplifies far here in rural East Texas. You see, my husband was one of those so vilified after his honorable service in Vietnam. He returned, after two tours, with a broken back, sustained in a helicopter crash, the first of its kind anyone survived from.

He returned, less than 52% of his flight class returned, as helicopter pilots suffered high attrition rates, to an America in which he was vilified. But he returned to continue service another 20 years, training a son that came afterwards that service to his country was honorable. This son went to the Air Force Academy, and married an Air Force Academy grad, so they both honorably serve.

My husband spoke to a high school in East Texas last Thursday. The students listened with great respect. He told of an America that once dishonored its veterans. He told of this America of the 1970s, when he and others were ordered not to travel in uniform, less it cause him harm. They listened with surprise and perplexed looks covered their faces.

They listened when he said that some in the recent Presidential campaign tried to deny the very freedoms he had fought for, when these veterans raised their voices in chorus, silent no longer. They listened as he told them they must carry the flag for their country, for freedom is earned by every generation, and lost when one generation thinks they need no longer aspire to it.

They listened. In my heart, I shouted, "it's way past time this decent man was given the respect he was long overdue!" Thank you, God.
-- Beverly Gunn
Quitman, Texas
Proud wife, proud Mother, proud American

MY MAN KERRY
Re: William Tucker's Go West, Young Country:

William Tucker pretends that this election was a referendum on public crassness and sexual practices that most people find distasteful. I would say that this is what the radical Bush administration tried to convey, in order to take peoples' attention away from the numerous ways in which it acts against the interest of the average family. The strategy of scaring people was brilliantly successful. As a Kerry supporter, I was voting for an economic policy that values hard work, social policy that respects privacy, and a foreign policy that truly makes us safer in the world. Kerry's programs and plans would have done much more for the family than what we will have for the next four years -- a continued transfer of wealth to those who are already the most affluent, a squeeze on the budget of ordinary families, a valuing of investment over work. The conservative agenda works only for the very wealthy and for religious crusaders who don't care if they are poor. The Republicans' tendency to wrap themselves in religious robes belies their actions that hurt the families they say they are trying to help. And by the way, Mr. Tucker mentions polygamy and incest as some of the "new frontier." I have heard that these practices, as well as child and spousal abuse, are actually more prevalent in the households of religious fundamentalists than in the rest of society.

Respectfully,
-- Janice Jones

DEM YANKEES
Re: S. T. Karnick's Who Polarized Congress?:

"....Democrats are the party of privilege, atheism, pacifism, social and economic sclerosis."

The Democrat Party will not clearly state their convictions, and then have courage in those convictions. They will not climb to the mountain top and yell what they stand for. The following is a partial list of what I have deciphered what the Democrats believe in:

Letter to the Editor

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